Holocaust denial and the pope's eyebrow-raising actions

What a dark day for the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict Ratzinger (I deliberately use his German name) re-instated into the church a bishop who emphatically denies the Holocaust. He says that at most, 300,000 Jews perished and none perished in the gas chamber.

I also hear that Pope Ratzinger plans on re-instating a Good Friday prayer calling on Jews to convert to Catholicism.

Let me be clear: I respect Catholics a great deal and I think it's a nice faith with nice traditions. But perhaps there is something to be said about the conclave way of picking a pope. Maybe it doesn't always yield the best result. Humans are fallible after all. Pope Ratzinger is proving that by the day.

Here's what I say to that Holocaust-denying bishop:

1. The Germans kept meticulous records. They took pride in the efficiency of their ethnic-cleansing machine. It's all documented if you would just read it.

2. Read the testimonies of the Nuremberg Trials, particularly the head of the Auschwitz Death Camp. Do you think he made it up?

3. Even if the number is eventually reduced to say 1 million or half a million. The Holocaust was a crime like any ethnic genocide. It was a murder of a people who simply wanted to live in peace with everybody else and should never be trivialized.

4. The Jews never wanted to milk the Holocaust. The idea of getting reparations from Germany divided Israelis and Jews everywhere. The key argument against was: can we put a price on our loved ones? It was Ben Gurion who stirred things ahead simply because the Holocaust caused a huge influx of Jews to the nascent Israeli state and the country was in dire need of funds after having fought a war of independence. I'm sick and tired of these holocaust deniers saying that we milk the holocaust for sympathy. Don't you think we would have preferred all those Jews to live through World War II? I wish I had a much bigger family instead of having lost 90% of it!


I'm sorry. This just gets me angry.